Day 11 - Pizza Fiasco and Shopping in Myeong-dong

Today I met up with seven other students at 11:30 and we had a craving for pizza, so we decided to go to Imsil Cheese Pizza (임실치즈피자), which has a unique crust that is made out of black rice which makes the pizza crust purple and also happens to be gluten free!

Thinking I was a skilled navigator, I found out where the nearest Imsil Cheese Pizza was to Yonsei and figured it was about a 10 minute walk from the campus main gate. As usual, I overestimated my orienteering abilities and we wound up walking 35 minutes in the blazing hot sun and stifling heat, retracing our steps twice and never finding the pizza place.

I was pretty embarrassed that I led a big group of people on a wild good chase all over Sinchon and we didn't even find what we were looking for! We decided to eat the nearest Korean pizza place (since we have Papa John's in America), which ended up being Pizza Heaven. Naturally, I wasn't able to eat the pizza but it looked good and everyone said it was good, albeit greasy.

Unsuccessfully trying to use NaverMaps to find Imsil Cheese Pizza

After lunch we headed back to the dorm and I spent 45 minutes trying to a locate a music venue in Hongdae that I want to go to this Saturday to see a concert. GoogleMaps is extremely unreliable in Korea, and almost never gives correct directions and often cannot even find addresses when you type them in. Most Korean people use NaverMaps, which is an exclusively Korean map website (part of the Naver search engine, which is sort of like the Korean version of Google). NaverMaps works really well but the one problem with it is that it is entirely in Korean with no option for English language, so it's a bit of a struggle to use.

Luckily, I can read enough Korean to painstakingly find my way with NaverMaps and then compare it alongside to GoogleMaps and make a decision as to where to go. I'm planning on going with some friends to see a Korean punk band called Counter Reset which I've listened to for about a year before coming to Korea at the venue on Saturday, which is called Sapiens 7.

At 3:15, I met up with three girls I know and we went to Myeong-dong to meet one of our Seoul Mates, which is a native Korean who befriends us and shows us around Seoul. Once we met up with her we shopped around Myeong-dong for a few hours. I bought a nice new phone case for only 10,000 won and some small gifts for friends back in the US.

The lunch box I had for dinner, before mixing it up

For dinner, we went to place that serves dosirak (도시락) which is a sort of Korean lunch box similar to bibimbap. Regardless, it was very good and we got bingsu (빙수), which is a Korean dessert made of shaved ice with different topics on it (usually including sweetened azuki beans). Ours had the beans as well as vanilla ice cream, sweet chewy rice cakes, bananas, watermelon, various nuts, kiwi, and a cherry tomato (weird, I know). It had a different taste than I expected but it was very good.

The bingsu we had for dessert, with some sweet rice puff desserts as well.

After dinner, we shopped around a little bit at the stores in the Myeong-dong train station and then decided we were tired and headed back to Yonsei University so we could turn in early because we have to get up early tomorrow for an LG electronics field trip.

That's all for now!

Day 10 - Mos Burger and Hongik University Children's Park

Today was the first day I didn't have to get up early for any reason so I slept in! After I got up, I went with some friends to Sinchon station and ate lunch at Mos Burger, which is an interesting Japanese hamburger chain. I got a yakiniku rice burger, which is seasoned beef and lettuce on two "buns" made out of rice, which is really just rice that has been packed together. It was delicious but kind of expensive so I'm not sure I'll be going back there very often.

The yakiniku rice burger I had for lunch

After lunch I shopped around for a new cell phone case in Sinchon but couldn't find any that looked good and were decently priced. Eventually, I headed back to the dorm room and just hung out for a few hours.

Around 9:00 pm, I met a friend in the lobby of the dorm room who told me about the Hongik University Children's Park, which is a playground in the daytime but turns into a venue for street performers on Saturday nights, so I went with him and a few other friends to try and find the park.

It seemed easy, but finding the park was actually much more difficult than we imagined. After wondering around for about an hour and asking at least three different people for directions, we finally managed to find the park, only to discover that we had showed up too late and almost all of the street performers had gone home except for one group of guys playing djembe and conga drums.

A picture of Hongik University Children's Park at night that I found on the internet, because there was nothing cool to take a picture of when we got there!

We hung out in the park for a bit and then decided to go explore the streets of Hongdae, since the Children's Park is located right on the edge of the heart of Hongdae.

That's all for now~

Day 9 - Yonsei Orientation

Today, I woke up and met my roommate, Jimmy, who is from California. He was already sleeping when I came in after the movie last night so I didn't get a chance to meet him until today. Jimmy and I went and met up with a bunch of other friends and we bought yogurt at the convenience store for a quick breakfast before we went to the Yonsei International Summer School orientation, which lasted for about an hour and a half.

After orientation, we walked into Sinchon (literally right outside of the university main gate) to find some lunch. We ate lunch in the subway station, which may sound weird, but subways in Korea are very different than the ones I've used in the US. All of the subway stations are air conditioned and very nice and clean and they have shopping malls and restaurants inside of them. Nearby Sinchon station has a shopping mall, Hyundai department store, food court, and grocery store all inside of the subway station. I ate sushi for lunch in the food court.

After lunch, I headed back to Yonsei to do my laundry because I was all out of clean clothes! Laundry turned out to be quite an ordeal because my clothes would not get dry in the dryer, so I did as Koreans do and hung them all up to dry.

We had a SK Global House orientation at 5 pm that was very brief and afterward I got my cell phone back from the mobile store with a Korean phone plan, so now I can communicate!

I'm about to head out with some friends to get dinner and then probably head back to go to sleep.

That's all for now!

Day 8 - First Day at Yonsei University

Today we met up as a group in the morning and took a bus to local medical center to get chest x-rays because it is required for the SK Global House dorm (to ensure we don't have tuberculosis). After getting the x-ray, we dispersed and I took a bus back to Yonsei University (my first time taking a bus by myself), and I walked the long route to my dorm through the main street of the campus and a park that is on campus.

Once I got back to campus, I went and had lunch with a friend at a restaurant very close to my dorm. I had bibimbap (my typical go-to meal). It was kind of pricey at 12,000 won (about $12). Most meals in Korea have costed me between 5,000-9,000 won. Aside from the price, the meal was very tasty.

After lunch, we headed back to the dorm and met up with some more friends and we took a train to the Myeong-dong (명동) district, which is a famous shopping area. There were street vendors and stores as far as you could see in any direction! I didn't buy anything yet but one of the girls I was with bought some pairs of K-Pop socks, which are socks that have pictures of Korean pop artists on them.

K-Pop socks

After eating dinner in Myeong-dong, we took the train back to Yonsei University to try and get our Korean cell phones. Sadly, I had issues with mine and I've still yet to receive a phone, which makes organizing plans really difficult!

Around 9:00, I met up with five other students and we walked to the local Megabox, which is a movie theater located in Sinchon about a 10 minute walk from our dorm. We saw World War Z, which is an American film so the words were in English with Korean subtitles.

My movie ticket

After the movie, we were all quite exhausted so we headed back to the dorms and went to sleep!

Day 5, 6, and 7 - Excursion to Southwestern Korea

I didn't have any internet access during the excursion we took to the southwestern parts of the country, so I'll recap everything that happened.

Day 5

Jirisan National Park

Today, we woke up and left the Somerset Hotel in Seoul and drove about 4 hours south to Cheonghakdong Village (청학동마을), which is a tiny village located on the edge of the Jirisan (지리산) National Park. Jirisan National Park is part of the Baekdu-daegan (백두대간) mountain range, which is similar in size the Appalachian mountain range in the US. We had bibimbap for lunch at a restaurant in Cheonghakdong and then hiked up Samsanbong Mountain and visited a small Buddhist shrine. It was amazed by the beauty of the shrine, but little did I know what we were in for over the next few days!

The restaurant where we ate lunch

Bibimbap for lunch

After visiting the Buddhist shrine, we hiked to another part of the mountain and visited a very large Daoist shrine that is no longer used (it's a museum now). There were huge stacked stone walls everywhere and giant piles of rocks (which are believed to increase the spiritual potency of an area.

The Buddhist shrine

The Daoist shrine

We left the Daoist shrine and rode the bus for another hour to the Hwagye Valley, which is the longest valley in Korea. We ate dinner at a restaurant in the village of Hadong and then slept in a motel. I was really excited to sleep on the traditional style floor mats (but I was not so excited about it the morning after, haha).

Dinner in Hadong village

Sleeping on the floor

Day 6

 13,000,000 won tea ($13,000) at the tea museum

We woke up and ate breakfast at a small restaurant next to our motel and Hadong and left at 9:00 am to go to a green tea museum where we got to see tea fields and prepare green tea, as well as learn the traditional Korean tea ceremony.

Preparing green tea at the tea museum

Learning the Korean tea ceremony

After the tea museum, we walked to the historical site which is said to be where the first tea was ever grown in Korea. We stopped and ate lunch in a small restaurant and then headed up the mountain to the Ssanggyesa Buddhist temple. This temple was much larger than the shrine we visited and had a nice hike through the woods to see a hermitage for monks.

The first tea site in Korea

Ssanggyesa temple

After visiting the Ssanggyesa Buddhist temple we got back on the bus and rode to the Hanwha Resort where we would stay the night. After we arrived, I went with a small group to the nearby Hwaomsa Monastery, which is still active. We saw monks performing an evening ceremony with drums and bells, as well as chanting and praying. It was like something you would see in a movie and it was amazing.

Hwagye Valley, near Ssanggyesa temple

Monk ringing a bell at Hwaomsa Monastery

We then ate dinner on the way back to Hanwha and spent the night there.

Day 7

Climbing up to the peak at Nogodan Pass

This morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and then hopped on the bus and drove to Nogodan Pass, which is the highest mountain pass in South Korea. The drive up to the pass was very windy and treacherous, but we made it up safely. At the top there is a rest area where you can hike up to the summit of the mountain, so I hiked up with 5 other students. The hike took about an hour and we were inside a cloud the entire time, so it looked very ominous once we reached the top. At the top of the mountain there is a Shamanistic shrine that is sacred to the ancient Korean religions which are still practiced today in rural areas like the one we were in.

 Shaman shrine at the top of Nogodan Pass

After hiking down the mountain, we drove to Namwon City, which is known as the City of Love in Korea. We ate lunch at a small restaurant in Namwon and then we went and toured Chunhyang Park. Chunhyang park is a park made around the home of Chunhyang, who is a character from Chunhyangjeon, the most famous Korean love story.

Chungyang Park in Namwon City

After we finished up at Chunhyang park, we got back on the bus and drove four hours back to Seoul.

My dorm, the SK Global House

Once we arrived in Seoul we checked into our dormitory at Yonsei University, which is called the SK Global House, and it is mainly for international students. The school is very close to the Sinchon district, which is a nice restaurant and shopping district in Seoul, so I have really good and cheap restaurants less than five minutes walking from my dorm.

Pictures of my dorm room (click to enlarge)

I went out to a Korean barbecue place and we ate samgyeopsal, which is grilled pork belly. Despite sounding very unappetizing, it was delicious! This particular restaurant had you grill your own meat in the middle of the table. It was very delicious and cheap! (only 9,000 won per person which is about $9).

Eating samgyeopsal at the Korean barbecue place

After dinner, we explored more parts of Sinchon as well as Hongdae, which is the next district to the east. Eventually, we headed back to the dorm and went to sleep.

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I have WAY too many pictures to put them all here, so here is a link to a photo album with more pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/108374664871550378377/albums/5894471844920034801?authkey=CIiUsIrd69LVdw

Day 4 - Seoul Scavenger Hunt

My scavenger hunt group: Kayla, Callie, Maimay, and Dianna

Today, we met in the lobby of the hotel we are staying in at 10:00 AM and split up into groups of 5 in order to do a scavenger hunt around Seoul.

Statue of King Sejong in Gwanghwamun Square. He's famous for many things, including inventing Hangul, the Korean writing system.

Another photo of Gwanghwamun Square

Facing the opposite direction in Gwanghwamun Square

First, we headed toward the Insadong (인사동) district but quickly realized we were headed in the wrong direction! We turned around and went to Gwanghwamun Square (광화문) to get a picture of the US embassy and the Seoul city hall. We then headed east and saw Cheonggyecheon (청겨천) Stream, which is a beautiful park that runs through the area near Gwanghwamun Square. We put our feet in the water (it was ice cold!) and walked across a cool stone bridge.

Statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin in Gwanghwamun Square

Korean War Memorial in Gwanghwamun Square

Cheonggyecheon Stream

Another shot of Cheonggyecheon Stream

Next, we went to the Korean National Tourism Organization as one of our stops for the scavenger hunt and took pictures with cardboard cutouts of Korean pop idols.

A picture of me with cardboard cutouts of Girls' Generation (Korean pop group)

We then hopped on a bus and rode to Severance Hospital, which is on the Yonsei University campus. We took a picture near the international health clinic in Severance (part of the scavenger hunt) and then went on a trek to find lunch!

The seollongtang I ate for lunch

We ended up eating a place that served different types of soup. I ate seollongtang (설렁탕), which is translated as ox bone soup. It was rather plain compared to the other Korean foods I have eaten.

After lunch, we took an hour long subway ride to the Gangnam (강남) district and saw a bunch of street cafes and a giant underground bookstore called 교보문고, which means Kyobo Book Center.

Traveling via subway to Gangnam

We returned from Gangnam back to Cheonggyecheon (the place with the pretty stream) in order to see a musical called Bibap, which was actually really entertaining. It was a comedic musical with a lot of loud dance music and a Capella singing. Even though I didn't understand the Korean words, I still thought it was very funny!

Me with the cast of the musical, Bibap

After the musical, some of our group went back to our hotel via train, but the rest of us walked back a couple miles eating various types of food from street vendors along the way. I couldn't eat a lot of it because it wasn't gluten free, but I did have boiled potatoes, extremely spicy kabobs, roasted chestnuts, and shredded squid (all of which I forgot the Korean names of, haha).

Tomorrow morning we are leaving on a three day excursion to some other cities in the southern part of the country. I won't have my laptop and probably won't have internet access for those days so I won't be able to update again for the next three days.

That's all for now!

Day 3 - My first day in Seoul

On the way to Yonsei University

Today we woke up around 7:30 am and got ready for the day. We ate the complimentary breakfast at the hotel (which included kimchi (김치) -- something I did not expect!). Kimchi is a traditional Korean food typically made of fermented cabbage, radish, scallion or cucumber with a fishy/garlic flavor to it, and it is apparently served at every meal.

The sign at the Yonsei University front gate

After breakfast, we met in the lobby and hopped on a bus to Yonsei University. We toured a small part of the Yonsei campus (which has a lot of hills and looks like the old universities in America) before attending an orientation at the CIEE office on-campus. CIEE is the name of the company that I am studying abroad through.

Yonsei's beautiful campus -- so many trees!

After orientation, we had 샤브샤브 (shabu-shabu), which is a Japanese food where you cook your own food in a hot oil. Of course kimchi was served at this meal (which was very tasty!) and the restaurant was on the 4th floor of a building.

샤브샤브 for lunch

The view from where we ate lunch

On they way to the Korean National Museum

After eating lunch, we took the Seoul subway system to the Korean National Museum, which is the largest museum in Korea. We attended a workshop where we learned a lot about Korean history and culture from natives and tried on traditional Korean dress.

Me, Andy, Sam, and Tyler wearing traditional Korean clothes

After the workshop, we went into the museum and took a tour around, looking at various artifacts such as the emperor's royal throne from the 1300s and celadon pottery. Once the tour was over, we were free to go do whatever we liked!

Outside and inside the Korean National Museum

Everyone decided to head back to the hotel so we could eat dinner and cool off (it's hot and humid here! -- 85 degrees Fahrenheit). I went and ate at a Japanese restaurant with two other girls which turned out to be a mistake because it was so expensive! We ended up buying one meal and splitting it between the three of us so we wouldn't have to leave and cause problems.

A beautiful building outside of the Korean National Museum

Afterward, I ate bag of chips to supplement my appetite and I headed to the Hongdae (홍대) district with seven other students. The Hongdae area is one of the places where all of the college students hang out. We had a lot of fun exploring the crowded streets and just now made it back to the hotel. Tomorrow we are going to tour more of Seoul and go to a Korean theater.

Shrimp appetizer at the Japanese restaurant...

One of the streets in Hongdae

Another shot of Hongdae

That's all for now!